I *heart* Doogie Howser!!!

I just watched "How I Met Your Mother." I was pleasantly surprised. I could watch it again next week. And I'm totally in love with Neil Patrick Harris. He's quirky, in an endearing kinda way. Lol.

I CAN'T WAIT FOR "LOST" ON WEDNESDAY!!!!!

Dude, I'm hooked. That is the show. And you know, those two shows, plus the Simpsons & "Monk," are pretty much all I'll watch this season. I'm not that big into TV. I mean, I don't have a lot of shows that I need to watch every week.

Tomorrow is our Back to School Night. Bleh. I have to give a speech to the parents of my students about my classroom procedures and policies. After a full day of teaching. BLEH. No fun.

adventures in the acme

I was helping my mother shop for groceries this afternoon. Amid the old ladies and young mothers with screaming kids, there was an extremely attractive man shopping alone, sans wedding ring (hey, when you're 27 and single, you look for these things). Saw him a few times, darting in and out of aisles, looking kind of lost.

My mother and I were picking out pasta, when Hot Guy came down the aisle. My allergies had been awful all morning, and I was in the middle of a sneezing fit, tissue at my nose, when Hot Guy walked over to us, and asked MY MOTHER to help him find the right kind of olives for martinis.

So my mother got to go talk to Hot Guy while I blew my nose. Damnit.

And that, dear friends, is the story of my life.

In other news, it's Saturday night and I'm sitting at home. I wanna go out, but no one seems to be around. Bleh.

If you're sexy and you know it, clap your hands...

Rob Thomas has a sexy voice. I never used to think that. I was never a Matchbox 20 fan or anything. It's all just a recent development. And don't get me wrong, I don't think he's attractive, physically. I mean, he's not hideous, but I don't think he's hot, either. It's just the voice. Does that make sense?

And while I'm at it, here's a list of other sexy-voiced male singers:
~ Dave Grohl
~ Rivers Cuomo
~ Damien Rice
~ Justin Timberlake (stop laughing, damnit!)
~ Usher
~ Brandon what's-his-name from Incubus
~ Adam what's-his-name from Maroon 5
~ Jim Morrison

And some non-sexy-voiced male singers:
~ Bruce Springsteen
~ Michael Jackson
~ Barry Manilow
~ James Taylor
(...among others...)

Just some food for thought. Enjoy. And hey, add your own in the comments section. I'm sure I'm missing a few good ones.

The stuff in my head

Ever have one of those dreams that's so realistic, that when you wake up, you just wanna go back to sleep? I had one of those last night. It was random and weird and so plausible... but now that I've dreamt it, I know it won't happen, because real life is never as cool as dreams. I kinda wish I could write the script for my life, so that everyone would say and do the stuff that I think they should say and do. But then I think that maybe that wouldn't be so cool after all. I'd get bored of people being so damn predictable, and there would be no surprises, and let's face it, there are probably much cooler things that could happen than the stuff I think about.

But anyway, it was a neat dream.

And DAMNIT, I'm bored.

You can't always get what you want

Crappy title, cuz I bit off an overplayed song. But whatever.

The first day of school was fine. The kids are cute. I think I'm up to 19 kids, which is still the smallest class I've ever taught. Not too shabby.

My complaint is with the events that occured after work. I recently purchased an MP3 player that is NOT an ipod. (I'm a non-conformist. And my brother recommended it.) I want to play it in my car, so I need to buy an FM transmitter. And a car antenna, because mine was stolen last year. Doug said he'd go with me for the trip to Best Buy, provided we could stop at Dan's house to pick something up.

We went to Best Buy (against my better judgement) first to look for the transmitter. The less-than-helpful employee showed us 3 different ipod accessories, despite the fact that Doug very clearly stated that I don't have an ipod. A point which I later reiterated, to no avail. Anyway, they don't carry a transmitter for any other player.

Fine.

So then I went to Pep Boys to get an antenna. I told the guy who "helped" me what kind of car I have, and he showed me an antenna with this huge monster power motor thing attached to it (which, to the best of my knowledge, goes inside the car somewhere). For $69.99. Okay, let me get this straight - someone stole my antenna by unscrewing it, and I have to pay $70 plus installation to replace it? How is that possible? Can't I just buy another antenna to screw into the hole? It's not one of those fancy antennas that retracts. I could just go unscrew one from another Elantra on my street and pop it in my car. But I'm not like that. I'm going to call the car dealership where I bought the car, and see if they can help me.

Finally, we went to Dan's house, where Doug picked up his wind screen. It's something that attaches to a mike to reduce certain sounds, as Doug explained it to me, but as far as I can see, it's just a screen that's been spit on by Ray and Doug. Ick.

On the way home, some Tom Petty cheered me up considerably. How can you be sad when he's enjoying his last dance with Mary Jane? You just can't. Awesome song, great lyrics, and kick ass harmonica solos. I can just picture him taking a hit of his joint before he blows it out of the harmonica. That's why it sounds so groovy.

But some good came out of this. I bought season one of "Lost" when I was at Best Buy. Seven hours of creepy island fun... whoo-hoo!

(And btw, Ray? "Almost Famous" rocked my world. Amazing movie, unbelievable soundtrack. Made me wanna sing "Tiny Dancer" on a tour bus with In Theory. Someday... )

'Twas the night before school...

Yeah. I should be in bed. But you know, I'd never seen "Almost Famous," and I was told that I really had to see it. So I watched it. And now it's after 10:30 PM and I have to wake up at 5:30 AM and I'm not feeling 100% ready for the first day of school. But I don't have much of a choice because tomorrow is indeed the first day of school. Lucky me.

I still have to print out a parent letter and figure out what to wear. Ugh. Little known fact: teachers also get nervous before the first day of school. Shhh... don't tell anyone.

In other news, our 5th grade teacher's son is in a band that plays at the Bistro, so I'm going to see them on Friday night. It'll be interesting to see a band that's not In Theory play at the Bistro. :) I think the band's called Clashing Plaid, or something equally punk-y. I hear they're pretty good. We'll see.

Okay. I can't put it off any longer. It's time to go to bed. 'Night, all!

Four weddings and a funeral.

Or more like one wedding and a luau.

Doug, Christina & I went to my cousin's wedding last night, and then headed straight to the luau afterward. I was pretty excited about finally getting to go "down the house" for a party. Drinks! Band! People! Food! Etc! So I was really bummed when we got there (before midnight) and discovered that the party was over. What the hell? From what I understand, these parties usually run a lot later. I'm not sure what happened exactly, but it was a buzz kill.

Doug & I tried to re-route the party (or a portion of it, anyway) back to our house, but thanks to some drama and a few sour moods, it was just a small group of us. No matter. We had a blast. (And alcohol. Can't forget the alcohol.) We had our own acoustic sing-along 'til 4 AM... followed by the requisite trip to GA for a late-night/early-morning snack. I went to bed at 6 AM. Beautiful.

Funny how plans can change so quickly - after the luau broke up, I thought for sure that the night would be a bust, but it turned out to be a damn good time.

Some choice quotes from last night...

At the Luau
Me: What are you drinking?
Christina: Ugh... just water...
(approximately two seconds later, at bar)
Christina (to bartender): Can I get a vodka tonic?

At My House
Me: Here's some vodka - it was in the freezer.
Dan (apparently channeling Paris Hilton): That's hot!
Me (drunk and confused): No, no... see? It's cold.

Everywhere
Ray: We have two rules. One: Rock! Two: Find more places to rock!
(repeated several times throughout the evening.)

Good times.

Happy early birthday to me!

My brother (who rocks, by the way), bought me a ticket for the Weezer/Foo concert in October. It's an early birthday present. A big ol' WHOO-HOO is in order! I can't wait!!! It's gonna be an amazing show. I'm guessing a lot of people I know will be there. I've already heard/read people talking about it. Perhaps there should be a pre-concert party? Straight from work to the parking lot, have some beer, then rock at the show... but then, after that, I would need to call out of work on Friday to recover. :) Maybe that's not such a good idea. But the concert will kick ass either way.

School starts on Tuesday - both grad school and work-school. I'm not ready for either. I had 2 weeks off from grad school, and I got kinda spoiled. I was actually able to read REAL books, instead of textbooks and articles. And as for work... well... I'm excited to go back, even though I'm going to miss my summer freedom. I have a super small class this year - only 16 have registered. There might be 2 more coming, but still, 18 is a very small class. This will be the smallest class I've had since I started teaching, not counting the year I taught special ed (previous class sizes, in order from earliest to most recent: 31, 29, 34, 24). I'll be thrilled to have 16 kids, though. I will be able to do SO much with this class. A big difference from the year I had 34, believe me.

And, oh yeah... did I mention that I'm going to see WEEZER and FOO?!?!? Whoo-hoo!!!!!